Pineapple Pergatory

When I saw Elizabeth Hartman's new pattern Pineapple Farm I immediately thought of my mother-in-law and sent her a picture. Her enthusiastic response had me delighted because she is usually quite reserved. I didn't pause to consider just how much work Elizabeth Hartman's patterns tend to be. This one is no exception.

After my mother-in-law directed me to a colour scheme- rusty reds and terracottas (so out of my own comfort zone) I got to work collecting a sufficient stack of fabrics. Then I started cutting. And cutting and cutting. 

Below is the cutting involved for three 10x10 squares that will make two pineapple bodies. It is painstakingly slow work with very precise tiny measurements (like one 7.5" x 1.5" piece and one 1.5" x 3.25" piece and...you get the idea).

These three cut pieces end up being arranged in a very specific and complicated arrangement (see below).

This is what the pieces look like when arranged just so. The diagram is quite complex and time consuming to make sure you do everything in just the right way.

There are a lot of pieces in this quilt. This was me cutting 400 tiny 1.5" x 3.5" rectangles.

When you rotate the block after it has been sewn together and trim it down to size, this is what you get on the right. I still need to add the corner pieces to make it more pineapple-shaped and make the green leafy top.

This was another block ready to sew together. I came up with a system

This is part of my system- I arrange the two layouts on the large square ruler and on my portable, turning cutting mat and then transfer them beside my sewing machine to carefully assemble before moving on to the next pair.

I have been making progress, but there will be 80 pineapples in the lap size and even after I trim them all I have to add tiny squares to the corners to give them the shape (4 squares per block for 320 squares worth) AND I still need to make all the tops of all the pineapples...so I have a long way to go. My deadline is April when my mother-in-law returns from six months in Florida. I should have plenty of time if I can keep up my motivation!